In the afternoon of October 27th, the first film screening to open the Hanoi International Film Festival took place at the National Cinema Center (Hanoi) with the film Shoplifters.

The Organizing Committee is honored to welcome Mr. Umeda Kunio - Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Japan to Vietnam with his wife; Dr. Ngo Phuong Lan - Director of Cinema Department, General Director of the Organizing Committee of the Fifth Hanoi International Film Festival; Mr. Nguyen Danh Duong - Director of the National Cinema Center, Head of Film Screening Subcommittee, crowded audience and press agencies.

In 2016, the Fourth Ha Noi International Film Festival’s Organizing Committee selected the film I, Daniel Blake, directed by Ken Loach (UK), which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May tobe the first screening film. During the opening screening of the 2014 Hanoi International Film Festival, there were many laughs when Daniel Blake went to get unemployment benefits but failed and his response to the policy implementers. Also talking about the topic of the less fortunate in society, Shoplifters by director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Japan) also won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival 2018 exploited another angle, lightly but deep, and still touching the emotion in the deepest place of the audience.

Scenes in Shoplifters

In Shoplifters, there is a very strange family, an old woman, a middle-aged man, a not young girl, a student, a small child. If looked outside, they must be a family of three generations, but they are not of the same bloodline. They live together as warm as a normal family, even, their attachment is deeper, perhaps because they need warmth in the harsh society of civilized Japan, develope.
Speaking at the opening screening, Ms Ngo Phuong Lan said: Shoplifters is often translated into Thieves in supermarket but it probably should be translated as family theft. It is much more correct. Maybe, it's right. At the beginning of the film, only Shota and his father are "practicing" theft. They often cooperate very well to steal at supermarkets, grocery stores for living things, or things worth to sell. When the little girl Juri appears, Osamu "the dad" wants to train her as his "son" to contribute to the family. And the woman Nobuyo regularly steals clothes at her working place - a clothing factory. She once stole a shirt for Shota. And the most surprising of all was Hatsue-the old woman, who “stole” Aki, her husband's grandson, who left her for another woman. Sometimes she visits her husband's son's family, Aki's parents, then they give her little money to apologize.

Dr. Ngo Phuong Lan, Director of the Cinema Department, General Director of the Fifth International Film Festival spoke at the film screening

A poor family, trying to keep and wrap up the little girl Juri who was violated by her own mother. The story has something similar to Mother, the famous Japanese drama premiere released in 2010. When witnessed a little, weak girl suffering from hunger, the coldness of winter in Japan, their parental instinct awake, they took her away. The only difference between the two films is that the mother in Mother knew her activity was illegal, and she would have to go to jail so she brought the girl to flee. And the family in Shoplifters did not think it was wrong, because they saved the baby, gave the baby true love. They also did not extort money from the child's family. So when the story broke, the children were brought back to their right place, many viewers showed grievances, felt sorry for the sincere feelings of a bloodless family. However, the call "father" of Shota, the hopeful look of Juri expressed the warm feelings that would not disappear despite their separation. That shows the success of director in portraying a family.

Ngo Phuong Lan also revealed at the film screening that the festival's Orgarnizing Committee intends to invite the director to attend the festival, however, because his work was too busy, the director had to refuse, he also hope to have the opportunity to visit and work in Vietnam in the coming time.
K. H